Fog Shrouded Crash Site, Witness Says

The rugged hillside in Chino Hills was thick with fog and visibility was poor in the dark of morning when the private airplane carrying four Corona firefighters on their way to a skiing vacation crashed, a witness and a meteorologist said Wednesday.

Ed Fortelny said he heard the Beechcraft Bonanza circle over his house several times early Tuesday but could not see the plane because of darkness and fog. There was no hint of trouble by the sound of the engine, he said.

Fortelny, who was on the back patio drinking coffee before going to work, said the plane circled four or five times before he saw “a bright, orange glow” cut through the fog about a mile away.

“By that time I had stopped hearing the engine, so I knew it had crashed,” Fortelny said. “Prior to the crash, I listened for the sputtering of [the] engine, but there was never a variation in the sound. There was never a misfire or anything strange. It was just the normal sound of an airplane engine.”

Those killed in the crash were the pilot, Michael A. Chantry, 36, of San Clemente; Donald Butts, 28, of Irvine; John Y. Jefferies III, 25, of Santa Ana, and Daniel Alleman, 27, of Perris.

Robert Balfour, a meteorologist at the National Weather Service office in San Diego, said fog was dense in some of the hilly areas of the Inland Empire. Authorities said the crash occurred at an elevation of 1,140 feet, near Chino Hills State Park, about 4:55 a.m.

Weather service records show that at 4:53 a.m., visibility in Chino Hills was four miles, but the fog and clouds were based at about 1,000 feet and were especially thick in the hills.

After reporting the crash, Fortelny and two neighbors hiked toward the scene, carrying flashlights.

“All we had was a general direction, because we couldn’t see anything,” Fortelny said. “We walked in a straight line, shining the flashlights. But the fog was so bad that light was reflected, just like when you drive in the fog with your bright lights.”

At 6:20 a.m. the wreckage was spotted by a helicopter, he said.

The tail was the only section that remained intact after the crash. It and other pieces of the plane were transported to Compton Airport, where federal investigators examined the wreckage Wednesday for clues to the cause of the crash.

Federal Aviation Administration spokesman William Shumann said Wednesday that Chantry was not required to file a flight plan, and none was filed. Records show that Chantry was licensed to fly single-engine aircraft.

Records also show Chantry’s father, Terrell A. Chantry, owns a four-seat 1955 Beechcraft single engine plane that was last registered Feb. 20, 1996. However, it was not clear Wednesday whether this is the same plane that crashed Tuesday.

A spokeswoman for the Corona Fire Department said funeral arrangements are pending.